Eli5: What are keystone species and why are they important??
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Keystone species play a pivotal role in their ecosystems. Without them, their ecosystem fractures. A good example is salmon.
Salmon are born in upstream freshwater. The fry feed waterfowl and other critters. When they work their way down to riparian and/or brackish areas, their waste feeds the plant life (which feeds other species) and the juveniles feed fishing/raptor species.
Once adult enough to be in salt water, they are a primary source of food for many marine mammals such as orcas.
When they make the journey back up to where they were spawned, to spawn themselves, they feed raptors and predators like bears. Bears gorge on salmon, so that they gain enough weight to make it through hibernation.
No salmon? Frogs, birds, waterfowl, beavers, don’t have as much to eat. Some of the Orca populations in the PNW – EIGHTY PERCENT of their diet is salmon. No salmon, no Orcas. And on and on.
So you look at the long list of species that depend on salmon, and that is why it is a keystone species.
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